Samsung Takes the Next Step for Foldable Phones

Remember when flip phones were all the rage? I do. I loved the feeling of physically answering a call with a flip, and ending it with another flip. By the time the Motorola Razr V3 was released,  flip phones were on their way out.

For the last few years, we started to get them back in the form of Samsung’s Galaxy Z series, which is comprised of two different models: the Galaxy Z Flip and the Galaxy Z Fold. The next step in that series could make the foldable thinner and lighter and integrate a spot for the S Pen stylus, previously only found on the discontinued Galaxy Note series.

That’s not to say the current Galaxy Z models don’t work. When the Z Fold4 came out in August, we liked the brighter display, improved taskbar, and better camera, giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars in our review. Then when the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 came out in October, we gave it 4 out of 5 stars and commended the key improvements since the Flip3.

However, some of the big issues we had with the Fold4 and Flip4—specifically, the price, the visible crease on the Fold4, and the cover display on the Flip4—don’t look like they’re going to be resolved in the next version. Instead, we're seeing that Samsung is prioritizing the introduction of an S Pen slot, a lighter and thinner phone, and bringing TV casting to both phone models.

Meanwhile, foldable and flippable phones have lagged in popularity behind other Galaxy phones, as well as Apple iPhones, for some time now. The Z series is just one of many model groups for Samsung—the Galaxy model also has an S series, A series, M series, and F series of phones. But according to recent statements, the Z series is their priority.

On Samsung’s Q2 earnings call this year, Sung-Koo Kim from MX (Mobile eXperience) Business announced that the team is “striving to make our foldables the mainstream that our customers love even more than they did the Note series” and turn the product into “flagship-centered revenue growth.”

That may seem like a pipe dream, but a month later in Berlin, Benjamin Braun, chief marketing officer of Samsung Europe, said, “Shipments of the Galaxy Z Fold4 and the Galaxy Z Flip4 doubled those of previous models in the European market, as the first sales figures of the new products reached an all-time high in Europe.”

As Samsung prepares to take the next step for foldable phones, WhistleOut will be ready to review and pass our thoughts on to you.